James N Gilmore

I still remember the first time I watched All the President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Natural, and All is Lost. Redford was absolutely magnetic, electric, and he used his iconicity to grow independent film through Sundance. One of the greatest to ever do it.

Episode 03: Crisis Communication w/ Dr. Andrew Pyle Podcast Episode · Culture Critically · 09/04/2025 · 53m

This week on Culture Critically, @aspyle.bsky.social joins us to talk about the relationships between crisis communication and critical analysis

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On the latest episode of Culture Critically, we're joined by Dr. Brandon Boatwright to talk about why social media research matters, and some of the challenges it faces in the current social media ecosystem.

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Culture Critically ep 01: “…And we’re back!” We’re relaunching the Culture Critically podcast! This quick intro episode welcomes listeners back to the show as we gear up to feature guests and discussion in the weeks ahead.

I'm relaunching my podcast! Culture Critically will return with episodes every other week. Want to come on and talk about anything related to media, technology, or popular culture? Let's connect and discuss big ideas!

culturecritically.wordpress.com/2025/08/14/c...

Trump administration is launching a new private health tracking system with Big Tech's help The Trump administration is pushing for Americans to upload personal health data to new apps run by private tech companies.

Resist the heck out of this.

apnews.com/article/trum...

No, we don’t need to encourage datafication and “wellness tracking” as the basis of a new surveillance state

‘Wall-E With a Gun’: Midjourney Generates Videos of Disney Characters Amid Massive Copyright Lawsuit A week after Disney and Universal filed a landmark lawsuit against Midjourney, the generative AI startup’s new V1 video tool will make clips of Shrek, Deadpool, and other famous creations.

A week after Disney and Universal filed a landmark lawsuit against Midjourney, the generative AI startup’s new V1 video tool will make clips of Shrek, Deadpool, and other famous creations. www.wired.com/story/midjou...

The Minnesota shooter apparently used data broker websites to find the home addresses of the people he shot and murdered.

Congress has had years to do something about data brokers and they've sided with the tech lobby over and over again.

Their inaction is deadly.

Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans

Well, that’s bad.

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/t...

Smartwatches promise all kinds of quality-of-life improvements − here are 5 things users should keep in mind As wearable technologies become more popular, it’s important to consider how they actually work and what their data actually tells us.

I'm a metrics skeptic. More info ain't always better.

Smartwatches promise all kinds of improvements − 5 things users should keep in mind theconversation.com/smartwatches... by @jamesngilmore.bsky.social

"A little skepticism goes a long way: It can challenge inflated promises and protect users."

It me

Smartwatches promise all kinds of quality-of-life improvements − here are 5 things users should keep in mind As wearable technologies become more popular, it’s important to consider how they actually work and what their data actually tells us.

New article in @theconversation.com summarizing some of the ideas from my book about the gaps between how we imagine smartwatches and their actual functionality, and why it's worth being skeptical about the ostensible 'magic' of our devices:

theconversation.com/smartwatches...

Rafael Onak, a user experience writing manager at Apple, instructed an employee to add the phrase “external website” to the screen because it “sounds scary, so execs will love it.” Another employee gave a suggestion on how to make the screen “even worse” by using the developer’s name, rather than the app name. “ooh - keep going,” another Apple employee responded in Slack.

This is so damning - Apple used its copywriting prowess to make the web itself sound unsafe www.theverge.com/apple/659296...

I've just signed a contract with DeGruyter to produce a Handbook of Wearable Technologies and Society - a global, first-of-its-kind collection of essays on how to study wearables featuring over 30 chapters. I'll be working on this for the next two years, and I'm so excited to see it come together!

How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border Customs and Border Protection has broad authority to search travelers’ devices when they cross into the United States. Here’s what you can do to protect your digital life while at the US border.

Do Customs and Border Protection officials have the authority to search your phone at the border? Short answer? Yes.

Here’s what you can do to protect your digital life while at the US border.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Our article combines the technology acceptance model and moral panics to think about how "perceived ease of use" structures perceptions around new/emerging technologies in particular institutional contexts.

Give it a read here and let me know if you need a pdf: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

What we found was less of a panic about ChatGPT disrupting education, and more of a negotiation about how to incorporate new technologies into existing institutional practices.

I'm so pumped to see this article published in Convergence! A team of four amazing graduate students and I examined 366 policy statements and teaching/research guides from 148 R1 universities written across 2023.

At Meta Trial, Instagram Co-Founder Says Startup Was Denied Resources Kevin Systrom said during testimony in a landmark antitrust trial that he believed Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, viewed Instagram as a threat.

The co-founder of Instagram Kevin Systrom testified on Tuesday in a landmark federal antitrust trial that his startup was starved of resources after Meta bought it because Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, was afraid of the success of the photo-sharing app.

RFK Jr.'s autism study to amass medical records of many Americans The autism study is planning to link confidential data "with broad coverage in the U.S. population" in one place for the first time.

www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...

Datafication leads to population-scale surveillance over and over and over.

Google’s Ad Dominance Is Illegal, Federal Judge Rules | KQED A federal judge ruled Thursday that Google is operating an illegal monopoly in online advertising technology.

A federal judge mostly sided with the Justice Department in a case about online advertising that could reshape the basic economics of running a modern website. via @kqednews.kqed.org

Just accepted in Convergence: "Technology acceptance, moral panic, and perceived ease of use: Negotiating ChatGPT at research one universities" - a really cool study of policies and teaching resources across 140+ universities I did with a team of four graduate students. Published soon!

Democratic Senators Call for Privacy Act Reform in Response to DOGE Takeover As Elon Musk's DOGE continues to slash through the federal government, Democrats in the US Senate are calling for an update to 1974 legislation to restrict government use of personal data and introduce...

As Elon Musk's DOGE continues to slash through the federal government, Democrats in the US Senate are calling for an update to 1974 legislation to restrict government use of personal data and introduce new penalties, including prison time, for violations.

Apple fined $162 million for hurting app developers with ‘excessively complex’ privacy options Apple isn’t required to make any changes, though.

Apple fined $162 million for hurting app developers with ‘excessively complex’ privacy options

How to Get Computers—Before Computers Get You If you don’t understand how digital tech is changing, you’ll be swallowed by it. From post-quantum algorithms and thermodynamic hardware to open source architectures and apocalypse-proof programming,…

If you don’t understand how digital tech is changing, you’ll be swallowed by it. From post-quantum algorithms and thermodynamic hardware to open source architectures and apocalypse-proof programming, WIRED journeys to the freaky frontiers of modern computing.

Robert McChesney, the Great Champion of Journalism and Democracy, Has Died The academic and activist inspired generations of people to challenge corporate power and support a media reform movement that lives on.

R.I.P. Robert McChesney, the great leftist media critic and scholar

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public WIRED has found four new Venmo accounts that appear to be associated with Trump officials who were in an infamous Signal chat. One made a payment with a note consisting solely of an eggplant emoji.

SCOOP: WIRED has found four new Venmo accounts that appear to be associated with Trump officials who were in an infamous Signal chat. One made a payment with a note consisting solely of an eggplant emoji.

The Careless People Won A controversial new book about Facebook serves as a field guide for the DOGE era.

“Careless People,” the new tell-all memoir by the former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams, chronicles the social network’s moral bankruptcy. It's a familiar story—yet it feels surprisingly urgent today, Charlie Warzel writes:

OpenAI’s Sora Is Plagued by Sexist, Racist, and Ableist Biases WIRED tested the popular AI video generator from OpenAI and found that it amplifies sexist stereotypes and ableist tropes, perpetuating the same biases already present in AI image tools.

WIRED tested the popular AI video generator from OpenAI and found that it amplifies sexist stereotypes and ableist tropes, perpetuating the same biases already present in AI image tools.

Everything You Say to Your Echo Will Soon Be Sent to Amazon, and You Can’t Opt Out Amazon is killing its “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” privacy feature on March 28 as the company aims to bolster Alexa+, its new subscription assistant.

"Hey Alexa, are you recording this?"

Yes, the answer is yes. Amazon is killing its “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” privacy feature on March 28 as the company aims to bolster Alexa+, its new subscription assistant.